Aayi’s Recipes Konkan/Konkani food blog, Indian culinary treasures

Sometime around 5 years back, I was working for a software company in Bangalore. Our project was a nightmare to everyone involved. We were working day and night 7 days a week. Either we used to go home at odd hours like 12 in the night or we worked throughout night. There was only one dorm in our office which was occupied by guys. So if at all any girls worked throughout night, they had to actually work instead of trying to get a nap (like many guys did – they used to sleep at 1 or 2AM).

I was working with Suma, who was my senior and very nice girl. We worked till next day morning 8AM and we were almost going insane. So, she suggested that we go to her home, take a nap and come back to office. Since my home was 25kms from office and going home and coming back from there was almost impossible due to heavy traffic, I decided to go with her. We took a nice nap and then her mom served us an amazing lunch. I still remember the taste of the lunch. She had prepared this Bendekayi(okra) huLi(a sour dish) which was just out of the world. I even got the recipe from her, but misplaced it somewhere.

Every time I saw okra, I would remember this dish. Finally I got the recipe in my collection from Kannada magazines. It came out so delicious. It might not be same recipe, but this sure is a winner .

Ingredients:
1 cup toor dal
1 cup chopped okra
2 tea spns dry coconut or dessicated coconut
1 tea spn chana dal
1 tea spn urad dal
1 tea spn rice(raw)
4-5 red chilies
1 tea spn cumin seeds
1 tea spn coriander seeds
4 peppers
1″ cinnamon
A pinch asafoetida
Oil
1/3 tea spn tamarind extract or 2-3 pieces tamarind
1 tea spn jaggery
A pinch turmeric
Salt

Method:
Add a pinch of turmeric to the toor dal and cook till it is soft.
Heat little oil and fry chana dal, urad dal, rice, red chilies, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, pepper, cinnamon, asafoetida and coconut till a nice aroma comes out. Grind it to a smooth paste with tamarind and jaggery.
Heat oil and fry okra till the pieces become reddish and they are fried very well. Add cooked dal, paste and salt. Cook for 5-6mins. Serve hot.

Serves : 4-5
Preparation time : 25mins